School Days Are Back Again!!

First "Roo" Sighting

Wow! It's amazing how time seems to fly right now. Sunday, July 8th, we were able to take the kids out around dusk and see all the wild kangaroos. I honestly don't know who was more excited...me or the kids. As you can see by all the pictures, I couldn't get enough. Dan thought I was being a little excessive with the pictures. I just wanted to share them with all of you. These kangaroos are much smaller than the ones at the zoo. These wild kangaroos have to feed off of the land and with the drought, they don't have a lot to eat.

Monday was another day of running. Dan was ready to go back to work and I was ready to take charge of the house again. There can only be one boss at a time at the house. So Dan needed to go. I took the kids by myself to get their uniforms. They are a very nice fabric that takes the sweat away in the summer. Right now though, we need to wear our "TRACKIES" (running pants and jacket). I laughed when I thought about the kids wearing uniforms but honestly it's great! There is no competition on who is wearing what and it makes getting ready in the morning very easy. I think the kids look smarter and hold themselves much better because they have something to represent. The children have really taken a liking to the hats. I thought it would be a fight but they wear them all the time.

Monday we also got our phone hooked up. My lifeline. It's so nice to hear familiar voices. Thanks to everyone who are leaving us messages on the blog. We check all the time to see who has left us a note.

CITY WHAT?

Listen Ladies and Gentlemen, being on the road for the first part of July was a dangerous thing in Brisbane when Angie Leibfried was learning how to drive. Dan was oh so kind to give me a few tips of how to enter round-abouts and how to keep it on the road. I was always wanting to go over to the right too much. I won't even go on to the part of the blinkers and wiper controls being on the opposite side of the wheel. I don't even really know why they have wipers...they are in a hundred year drought for heaven sakes!

Sunday, July 8th, we decided to go to Christian & Paige's school so that we could see the Chapel that they would be attending during the week and I could get an idea of how to get to school from our house. After church, the priest gave Dan some different directions to use so I could avoid a lot of the city traffic on the way to and from school during the week. Dan gave me the refadex (reference map coupled with a street index) and had me help with the directions. This is a map of how to get around the area...keep in mind, they have round-abouts in them too. AWWWW! We made it home. Then my lovely husband decided that I should give it another try when we got home. I barely knew how to get out of our subdivision much less get back to school. I did however make it to and from school with Dan only closing his eye's a couple of times as I was heading too close to the bluff wall. He thought I was going to take off the mirror. You should see me take those corners now. Just so that everyone one can be at ease, I did get a driving lesson and you are safe to come over and ride with me now.

While we were down by the kids school for the 3rd time in one day, Dan took us on a City Cat (water taxi) ride. This was really fun. We hopped on the boat at the University of Queensland and rode it for an hour one way. This a fun and inexpensive way to get around the city. We will definitely have to do this with our guest when they come over. We saw the downtown area, the Story Bridge (this is the one that you can climb over) and a lot of other cool stuff. The great thing about this is that you can hop off and get back on another City Cat going the other direction any time for one fare all day. I personally just like watching the different people getting on and off the Cat.

As you can see Dan has been keeping us busy the first couple of days we were here. I will try to be as well as Dan when any of you come over to visit. Hope you are enjoying these entries as much as we are enjoying our time together.

The Grocery Run

After getting all the furniture delivered to the house it was time to get busy getting the groceries. We were off to the Mt. Ommaney Shopping Centre to get our first round of groceries. Walking in, I knew that I was in trouble when I started pushing the cart. It has rear wheel steering which is opposite of the States where they steer from the front. This makes it very difficult to steer. Even worse is when your cart is completely loaded and children are hanging off the front. I usually go down the aisles sideways.

Off I go...I need bread and milk. Easy right? I had to ask someone which milk I should use for cereal. She had just moved here from London and was in a pinch looking for stuff herself. Needless to say, we are now playing phone tag trying to get together for tea sometime soon. While looking at the items, I noticed that the prices were going to be much higher than I usually saw in the US. Grapes were $6/pound, a case of Coke was $20 and M&Ms (for a large bag) $6.28. I could go on, but I think you get what I am saying.

I am happy to report though that I am getting better acquainted with the grocery store and am finding some stuff that is similar to the USA. Thank goodness Dan is budgeting a lot for groceries.

Both Feet On The Ground And Running

Our apartment was absolutely amazing with 3 sides of the apartment facing the ocean. We didn't spend much time there though. Dan had us on the move right away. We ate lunch at a little cafe right by our apartment, $41 Aus. We had 2 hambergers 3 drinks and a side of chips. We call them french fries in America. They must like the French either. After that, we decided to find a grocery store for the rest of stay down there. Our goal for the first night was to have everyone stay up until 6:30. Sounds early but we were exhausted.

Thursday we had appointments all day. Starting with visiting Dan's new office, then off to pick out furniture. This took a while. Dan was nice enough to get Mcdonalds for us because the kids were fading quickly. The one thing that Mcdonalds does over here is serve Shrek pasta as one of the meals. We met with St. Peters Lutheran College...it was amazing. Dan pulled through with both the house and the school.

Friday was another very busy day. I got to watch the sun come up over the ocean while going on a run on the beach. It was breath taking. When I got back, Dan had taken the kids to get breakfast which consisted of pancakes with a side of ice cream and some drinks ($60). This is a normal thing I'm finding out here. The children don't seem to mind either. We packed the remainder of the bags and started heading for our new home at:
3 Melaleuca Crescent
Sinnamon Park, Queensland 4073
Australia

Here are a few pictures at the park while we stayed at the Gold Coast...it was a great way to keep them awake during the day.

First Couple of Days

July 2nd, the day we had been waiting for with anticipation and some hesitation of having to say good-bye for one last time, was finally here. Christian and Paige were excited to get on the plane and get going. By the time we hit LA, we were all a little loopy. We did have a small delay in LA and this led to the children being extremely tired and they were sliding off chairs in the airport like rag dolls. You could only laugh at how they were acting. They slept 5 of the 13 hours. They got a good 8 hours of movies and games. Just what they were looking forward to.

We made it to Brisbane on July 4th. The only thing we wanted to do was eat and burn the clothes that we travelled in. Dan finally found our van driver after some miscommunication as to where we were to meet. When we arrived at the Gold Coast, to my surprise, the van driver unloaded our bags on the side of the road and we had to roll and carry them up the stairs. Christian wanted to know where the gold cart was for luggage and so did I. Due to the pure exhaustion, I was wondering what I had got myself into. I didn't even know how to open the front door of the hotel/apartment.

Over all, looking back, this was our first of probably many challenges we will overcome. Here are a few pictures of our flight over hope you enjoy.

In the Beginning and Upto Departure

In late April, Dan received the exciting news that we were going to be heading to Brisbane Australia. With all the family told and with some hesitancy to see there reaction, we were off to decision making and completing a laundry list of things to do. We listed our house on May 7th and it sold on the 10th. That was a great sign to us that we were suppose to move. So as they say in Australia, we went "straight away" to getting the moving company set and medical records finalized.

The children finished school and Dan was off the Brisbane for a 2 week visit. It seemed to go so quickly. In the midst of Dan being gone and packing, his dad was fortunate enough to receive a heart transplant. Again everything was falling into place. On the final day of Dan's trip, he found the house that we are currently living in and the "college" for the children.

Dan then returned to the US and we spent our final week making last minute visits with family and friends in Iowa. On July 2nd, we went to the Cedar Rapids airport and began our journey to our new home in Australia.

Saying good-bye to those we love